outline

Between 1984 and 1992 the Macintosh had ease of use locked down like Abu Ghraib before a Rumsfeld visit. Back when the command line was basecamp for any kind of creative computing, "the rest of us" had MacWrite and MacPaint, two timeless examples of low-carb creative induction now so palely imitated in the likes of MS Paint and Wordpad.

Maybe it was just my age at the time, but the style menu seemed an immutable bounty of visual acuity! You could italicize, underline and embolden to make your point, but if the graphic designer inside still chafed you could kick it up two notches with Outline and Shadow. I used them all the time. My addiction would surely have prevented me from getting any serious job as a designer, or even producing something that anyone else would care to look at, but did I care? I looked forward to the amazing future developments of the style menu with an uncouth eagerness; wildly craving one-click graphic satisfaction to the detriment of more childish exploits.